The  

Vince Cable is hopeful that the government will meet its target to have more women on the boards of top companies by 2015, but he admits that the “experiment in voluntary encouragement” has seen a slowdown in the last six months.

“It is a warning not to be complacent,” he says of a recent Cranfield report, which showed that the percentage of women promoted to the boards of FTSE 100 and 250 companies has slowed.

However, Cable is clear that he wouldn’t be happy with a more aggressive approach, and nor, he says, would lots of women. “The government would if necessary adopt tougher measures,” he adds, although legislation would be the “ultimate deterrent” and would only be considered if businesses failed to meet the target.

The claim that women just don’t want to be in the boardroom is “a lazy rationalisation designed to excuse lack of commitment” Cable adds, yet he remains hopeful that change is possible, and isn’t far off. “The business leaders who in the past have not regarded this as of terribly great relevance to them are taking it very seriously,” he says. “I think there are a lot of men in top positions who realise that the present situation is completely unsatisfactory and are genuinely trying to turn this around.”

The Guardian, 18/04/13